In the Limelight
by cellie ruru
Summary: When Celesse's entry for a summer internship essay contest lands internships for herself and three friends on their favorite show, Naruto, one thing was for sure. That this would be the best summer ever!
1. Chapter 1

_Is it enough to love?_

_Is it enough to breathe?_

_Somebody rip my heart out_

_And leave me here to bleed_

_Is enough to die?_

_Somebody save my life_

_I'd rather be anything but ordinary, please…_

* * *

Celesse sighed and pushed her black bangs out of her eyes as she flipped through another page of the newspaper. She rested her chin in one hand who's elbow rested on the arm of her chair and settled down to scan the page intently. Unbelievable. She had already hit the 'Today' section of the paper and still no contests. This was the Sunday Star Ledger! There _had_ to be _some_ sort of essay contest in there!

She rubbed her usually bright blue eyes and sighed again. Like most days, especially weekends, Cel was bored out of her mind with nothing better to do--which generally signalled scouring the newspaper for essay contests of varying degrees of difficulty. She didn't write them for the prizes (which hardly went over a lunchbox, usually, but every so often they had money as rewards), though…

…It was because she was so damn bored out of her mind.

"Cel dear, what are you doing now?"

Celesse groaned. "Reading the paper, mom."

"Do you mind checking on your little sister?"

Cel was about to mutter something along the lines of, '_Yes. I do._' but something in the way her mother said the question hinted it wasn't the time for smart-mouthing her parents right now. "Nah. I'll go see what she's up to."

As soon as she stepped into the family room, Celesse had a faint feeling that there was something wrong. Perhaps it had to do with the ripped papers all over the floor, the glue dripping from the windows, and the uncapped marker her little sister was about to stuff into her mouth.

"Jewels! Julie! NO!"

She swiped the marker safely away from her sister, bracing herself for the screaming fit of tears that was about to ensue by examining the marker. She bit her lip when she saw the label: Sharpie. Celesse slammed her fist on the table.

"Damnit, Julia! You were touching my Sharpie markers again! How many times have I told you not to do that? Now I'll be in trouble with mom again!" She looked on the ground and saw a markered picture of her favorite character with torn corners and smeared with glue. His silver hair could barely be made out behind the streaks of pink and purple. "Look! You even ruined my picture of Kakashi!"

Julia stopped crying immediately and just gave her the small sly smile six-year olds give their older siblings when they know the did something wrong but won't get in trouble with their parents for it. "Sorry, Cellie."

Celesse rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Now how are we going to clean this up?"

The little girl raced for the door.

"Oh no you don't--"

Cel grabbed for her sister's wrist to jerk her back inside the family room and locked the door. "Nuh uh. You're staying in here and helping me clean, Julie. Got it? Okay."

She set Julia to wiping the windows free of glue as she picked up the papers off the floor. _Printer paper, hardly used? Keep. Construction paper cut to bits? Throw. Hastily made art project still dripping with glue and sparkles? Wait until it dries, and then throw. Ripped up newspaper ad--woah. How'd this get down here?_ Celesse made her way over to the couch to read.

**NARUTO**** ESSAY CONTEST!**

**Do you like the popular action show ****Naruto**

**Do you have a favorite character?**

**Would you like to meet him or her?**

**Need a job this summer?**

**This is your chance!**

**Write an essay (one page, double-spaced) on what you would do**

**if you you were to meet this particular character and send it**

**to the address below. You could win a SUMMER INTERNSHIP**

**as PART OF THE STAGE CREW on the SET OF ****NARUTO**** for YOURSELF**

**and THREE OTHER FRIENDS!**

**Submissions must be postmarked by JUNE 1****ST**

**(see for more details)**

_This is my chance. I can write about Kakashi! That should be easy enough, right? And if I win…I finally get to meet him in person!_

"No way," Celesse murmured, her heart hammering. "No…effing…way."

But there it was, sitting in front of her on her lap. Her eyes flicked to the date flashing on her watch. It was May 20th. There was still time. Without another moment lost Cel dashed out of the family room and up the stairs to the computer in her parents' room, leaving her sister alone to finish cleaning.

* * *

"Thank you for driving me to the post office, Mrs. Rhimer," Celesse said brightly as she gripped an envelope tightly in her fingers.

Mrs. Rhimer smiled. "No problem, sweetheart. Lynn told me all about what you've got in that envelope and I've never seen her so excited."

Lynn bounced around in the seat next to her, as if to confirm her mother's statement. She turned to her best friend. "I really hope you win!"

"I know! It would be so…_awesome_, if I did. But…I just don't know what I'll do with the other three internship spots…" Cel saw Lynn's puppy eyes in her periferral vision. "Of course you'll be one!" She pushed her friend playfully. "I just know all my other friends would be vying for the other two, though…"

Lynn's mom stopped in front of the post office and the two girls clambered out. Though not yet even June, the air seemed to be screaming summer with its hazy heat and brighter-than-usual sunlight. Even Celesse's hair knew summer was just around the corner--the blonde streaks that highlighted her hair by the end of July were already showing two months early. But the teenager was too excited to notice or care. She quickly pushed past the hot metal of the blue outbox and began to drop her letter…but stopped herself, if only for a moment, to wish.

_Please make it to Hollywood. Please have someone read you. And please, please win. If you do, I'll never want or wish for anything ever again. This'll be my chance to meet Hatake Kakashi, _the_ Kakashi, and the rest of the cast! I'll never get this opportunity again…_

"C'mon, Cel! Let's go get something to eat!"

_Please_.

Celesse squeezed her eyes shut tighter one last time and dropped her letter into the blue metal box.

* * *

She waited.

She would sit at her bay window an hour before the postman came, then rush outside to grab the mail and flip through it, only to moan in disappointment when all she found were bills and flyers. Celesse knew that they would decide the winner over the air on June twentieth, but they also said that the winner would get a letter ahead of time…

Her apprehension grew as the twentieth approached, and still no letter came. She ignored her parents' annoyed glances when she still sat at her bay window and waited for the mail on the day that the winner was supposed to be announced on the show. She was cutting it close by mere minutes (depending on whether or not the postman was late); _Naruto_ was going to start at four.

Celesse glanced at her watch. 3:58.

The postman approached her mailbox and smiled, already recognizing her and then he began to shuffle through his mailbag. His grin widened when he held up a letter with the _Naruto_ logo on the cover.

Celesse dashed out the door and the man handed her the envelope. She was ripping it open, not caring about the rest of the mail the postman filled the mailbox with. Her eyes whizzed at top speed as she scanned the letter and sprinted just as quickly inside as she had run outside before, bursting into the family room with a cry of, "I WON!" just as a voice on the television read aloud from a slip of paper, "And the winner is…Celesse Kameron from Union, New Jersey with her essay on Hatake Kakashi!"

Her dad congratulated her and her mom reluctantly joined him. Her sister didn't quite understand what was going on, but she was overjoyed to join her sister in jumping up and down frantically.

"--I--I have to call Lynn! And Bri! Bri will want to know, too--"

At the moment her world was a haze of confusion as her parents talked about plane tickets and hotel rooms and whether they should all go to Hollywood for the summer or not, her sister danced around in circles and laughing and she had no idea why, and the phone ringing off the hook from her friends who knew she had joined the contest (and even those that didn't). But nothing really registered at the moment except for two words, two words she had screamed for the world to hear:

_I won._


	2. Chapter 2

"Look! Look! I can see the sign! IT'S THE SIGN!"

Celesse took a deep breath and closed her eyes again, slowly, so that she could concentrate on something other than the embarrassing looks targeted her way because of Brielle's cries. _She_ honestly didn't mind her friend's excited-ness over spotting the 'Hollywood' sign, but the other passengers sure did. She could feel their glances burning through her eyelids. Just as she thought she was about to lose it, a pair of hands from the seats behind her gripped the over-anxious girl's shoulders.

"Calm down, Bri! Save all your energy for when we actually _get_ there!" Brit exclaimed. She leaned in to whisper something in her ear. "…for when you see _Sa-suke…_"

Well, that shut her up.

Cel couldn't resist a follow-up jibe. "That's right, Bri--listen to your cousin. Think of Sasuke."

Bri stuck her tongue at her. "Well, at least he's _my age_. Not, like, ten years older than me--"

"Shut up."

"--with grey hair--"

"It's silver!"

"…sure. Whatever you say." Brielle just grinned wolfishly at her friend before turning her attention back to the window.

"Why I oughtta--"

Now it was Lynn's turn to calm down her friend. "Relax, Cel. We're almost there."

It was June thirtieth, the day before they started their internships. After much discussion, the parents of the four girls decided that they should get there at least a day or so before July first and that they should go alone. The girls were in highschool, they figured, and could take care of themselves.

Which was just fine with "the girls". It's not as if they were complaining or anything.

As soon as the plane landed and they were cleared to leave, the four friends tumbled out into the lobby of the Los Angeles airport, chattering away. They were glad to stretch out their legs after the six-hour long flight, and were eager to get their luggage from the suitcase pick up before getting something to eat.

"Aww man, are my legs sore," Brit muttered as she picked up and shouldered her backpack. "That flight nearly killed me!"

"Yeah, me too," Celesse added, stretching her arms high into the air and yawning. "Not to mention the jet lag…"

Bri's arm punched the air. "C'mon, you guys! It isn't that bad! Just think of where we are right now!"

The four girls looked at each other and grinned. "CALIFORNIA!" they chorused.

"That's right. Well, let's go get out stuff and head out to find a restaurant…we can call our parents later--" Celesse suddenly dropped the messenger bag she was about to sling over her body and took a few cautious steps forward.

Lynn reached out to grab the sleeve of her shirt. "Cel, let's go! What are you--" Her eyes popped. "--Is that…?"

"It's KAKASHI!"

The black-haired girl sprinted towards a tall man with a hat on to cover his tell-tale silvery white hair and tinted shades, surrounded by four or so suitcases. He smiled and waved nonchalantly, then put his finger to his lips. Celesse screeched to a halt immediately and had to backpedal a few steps to avoid crashing into the actor head-on.

"Hi," she said in a small, squeaky voice.

Kakashi leaned closer and tilted his head. "Pardon?"

Celesse took a deep breath and sighed, calming herself down. "Hello, Kakashi. I'm Celesse." She held out her hand, which he took.

"Nice to meet you, Celesse. You were the one that wrote that awesome essay on me, right? My 'biggest fan'?" He grinned, looked behind her. "And are these your lucky friends that also have the much-wanted internship jobs?"

"Yep." She pointed them out. "That's Bri, over there, with the curly brown hair. Right next to her is her cousin Brit, with the long straight hair and the black backpack. And on the right is Lynn, my best friend."

Kakashi shook each of their hands in turn. "Nice to meet you all. Welcome to LA! We'll take a quick hop over to the hotel where you'll be staying so you can drop your stuff off, and then I'll show you around the studio. You'll be starting tomorrow, so we need to get you oriented and comfortable with the layout of the set we won't have to cover our eyes in horror to often. Agree?"

They nodded.

"Good. Oh! And I'd like you to meet my personal assistant, Jackie. She helped pick up your suitcases from the baggage line." Only when the actor motioned to the girl did any of them notice her. They immediately wondered how they couldn't have seen her before.

She was _beautiful_.

Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Slightly, but perfectly, tanned. Rather tall. Brilliant smile. Celesse's smile began to fade before completely wilting when she strode up and Kakashi put a playful arm around her waist. "This is Jackie, and she's my personal assistant for two years now. She started off as an intern just like you guys--how old are you now, again?"

Jackie laughed. "Seventeen, Kakashi. Don't you remember? We celebrated my birthday last week?"

Kakashi grinned. "Of course I don't remember! That's what you're for, isn't it? But yes, that's right--Jackie just turned seventeen a week or so ago. She just around your ages, correct? If you work really hard at this job, you can become a personal assistant, too." Celesse felt herself sigh in relief when he dropped his arm to his side. "Well, let's get going! The limo's outside."

"L-Limo…?"

Brit grinned as she carried her suitcase. "Yes Bri, a limo." Lynn and Cel both grabbed their pull-along travel cases, and they handed Brielle her's.

"So," Lynn began, looking at the other three. "Are we ready for this?"

"You betcha!" Celesse cheered.

Kakashi turned to look behind him. "Hey! Are you guys coming or not?"

* * *

They bounced around Los Angeles to find a place to eat, finally deciding on a famous restaurant named _Cicada_, located in downtown LA. Kakashi requested a private table outside and, after a long lunch, the limo made its way to The Peninsula Beverly Hills--a top-notch hotel in the heart of Beverly Hills. All Celesse could do was gape and stare. It looked like a palace fit for gods, and that was in the _daytime._ She already spotted the lighting fixtures that she was sure would give soft, ambient lighting later on in the night. Knowing she had approximately five seconds before someone interrupted the beautiful silence, Cel concentrated solely on enjoying the sight on which eyes feasted on. So this was what movie stars live like…

"_It's got a rooftop pool!"_

Well, there goes that lovely tranquility.

This time, it was Brielle's turn to control her cousin. "C'mon, Brit. Let's check in first."

Jackie peeked in through the double doors. "Already done." She waved a set of four keys. "You guys can go right up."

"Really? Sweet!"

Brit snatched the keys from Jackie's hand and began handing them out before sprinting for the elevators, followed by Bri. Celesse smiled and handed Lynn her key as they started walking instead. "So, Lynnie, what do you think of it so far?"

Lynn shook her head and chuckled. "I'm still trying to wake up."

This set both girls off laughing, only to be frightened a sudden weight on their shoulders when Kakashi put his arms around them. "Hey; you tell your friends that we'll meet you in the lobby in an hour, okay? Get ready as if you were going to meet about 20 movie stars…because you are." With that he tipped his shades down to wink, and strode over down a hallway that led to the restaurant and bar. It barely registered in Celesse's mind that Jackie was no where to be seen.

"C'mon." Lynn tugged on her arm. "If we don't hurry, Bri and Brit are going to take the best beds!"

Cel blinked. "Beds? With an 's' at the end?"

"Yeah! We've got a four-bed suite…weren't you paying attention to what your parents said?"

"Do I ever? I'll race you!"

She flashed her a grin as they shot for the elevator to their hotel room.


	3. Chapter 3

"BRI! JUST OPEN THE DOOR!"

"I will never surrender!"

"Guys…we're going to be la-_ate_…"

"Really, Lynn? Bri, did you hear that? STOP PUSHING THE ELEVATOR BUTTONS, DAMNIT!"

"NEVER!"

Brielle's body was currently plastered against the console on the glass elevator's single stainless steel wall, fingers frantically pushing random buttons. The elevator began to slowly rise up to the nineteenth level. The rest of the company groaned. Celesse just hoped Kakashi wouldn't kill them for the lateness.

_You know, God, I've tried to be a good person,_ she though in weary resignation. _I really have. And I'm trying to do my best on this trip. I even shooed everyone out of the room fifteen minutes early. You know how I said I would only ask for one thing, to get here in one piece? Well…I'd rather _not_ be strangled by a guy I've wanted to meet for years. That would be a quite embarrassing--not to mention a rather painful--way to die._

Just then the door dinged, and opened to…the lobby. Standing in front of the elevator was Kakashi, with Jackie behind him. He still had his sunglasses on despite the fact that they were still inside, but had changed into a little more formal wear: a casual jacket and a pair of khaki's looked much cleaner than the designer t-shirt and black jeans Celesse had seen him wear before. The hat was gone, too.

"Hey." He greeted them with a small wave. "The front desk saw you were having an--_ahem--_hard time. So he brought you down to here at my request." Everyone turned to look at Bri, who just grinned and shrugged.

"What? You have to admit, it _was_ fun…"

"Well thanks to you, we're running late!" Jackie cut in, clutching a small pile of t-shirts to her chest. "We should have been at the studio ten minutes ago--!"

"Now, now, Jackie," Kakashi scolded jokingly. "I'm sure Kishimoto won't mind so much. Besides," he slid down his shades and winked at the four other girls behind his silvery-white bangs, "being late is my _specialty_, remember?"

Cel smiled at the inside joke. Of course. The Kakashi in the show was always late for everything. She motioned to her friends. "Come on, guys! We've got movie stars to meet!"

They all piled into the limousine at the same time, tumbling over each other, crushing toes. A cacophonous medley of laughter and chatter struck Celesse's ear as she struggled to clamber into the sleek black car. But Brit's foot was in the way and she tripped ungracefully and landed headfirst…right into Kakashi's lap.

It took her a moment to realize exactly what was going on.

But when it _did_ hit her, it hit her hard; she scrambled backwards into the seat next to Brielle, blushing madly as little bouts of mirth rippled through the occupants of the limo, Kakashi included.

"…Ten years apart…" Bri's voice whispered, reminding her jokingly.

Celesse merely bit her lip and turned away to look at the window. As different topics of conversation began to arise among the others Cel herself remained silent, choosing to watch the Los Angeles night life pass her by. She kept reminding herself that this wasn't how she wanted to spend two months, two months that were supposed to be the best summer of her life, that she should pick herself back up and attempt to jump into the current dialogue with her friends. Really--what girl _wouldn't_ want to be riding in a limousine with the famous (or infamous) Hatake Kakashi, world-renowned actor and could-be model, talking as if they were the best of friends? She couldn't _possibly_ be spoiling that right now. That would be stupid.

But despite what she told herself, she knew it was true. She _was_ doing just that.

* * *

Celesse was still in a bit of a put-out mood when the limo pulled up to the correct studio, and the driver helped them out. As soon as her feet were on solid asphalt she smoothed out the shirt she was wearing and followed Jackie, who led them all to a small door in the side of what looked like a building. The night was clear and stars were shining brightly despite the light pollution, and the warm evening air wrapped its hazy arms around her like they were casting a spell.

"Cel!" Brit hissed to her. "What are you waiting for? Christmas? Hanukah?"

She reluctantly followed her friends through the door only to be greeted by what she thought were a million bright lights. Stage and spotlights, from the amount of electricity searing her retinas. Her hand instinctively rose to her face in defense.

"Hey! You guys are the new interns, right?"

Celesse knew that voice from somewhere. It was definitely familiar. In the still blinding abyss next to her she heard Lynn speak up. "Oh, wow! Uzumaki Naruto! You _have_ to sign something for me--"

A laugh from a blurry orange figure in front of her. Her eyes were slowly adjusting and losing their temporary blindness. She rubbed her eyes until her vision cleared, revealing a blonde-haired blue-eyed teen grinning from ear to ear. "That's me. And don't worry about signings. You'll have two months for those!" He turned around and called out. "Hey people! The new guys are here!"

Quite a few whoops and yells from the crowd on set.

Naruto beamed. "You caught us in the middle of a take, but I don't think Masashi would mind too much. We've been up since six this morning."

"Ah, go back to the set, Naruto," Kakashi told the younger boy. "From what I see you still haven't finished shooting the episode."

"That isn't happening, Hatake! Nuh uh! You had them all day--now you've got to share 'em!"

"Yeah!"

"S'right!"

Kakashi sighed as he gave in. "Alright, Naruto. I have to check in with Mr. Kishimoto anyway. I'll be back." He adjusted his sunglasses as he strode off towards a back office.

Bri leaned towards Jackie. "Does he _always_ wear those sunglasses?"

"Yes," the blonde girl nodded. "Even inside, and in whatever weather. He only takes them off when they're rehearsing or he's asleep."

"That's…odd."

"Says the girl who ran into a door at school," Celesse muttered under her breath.

Brielle's voice bordered preppy. "Oh no you didn't!"

The two of them were nearly rolling on the floor with laughter before Naruto called over to them. "C'mon! I want to introduce you to the rest of the crew!"

He led them to the actual set first, where some of the actors were fooling around.

"Yo, Sasuke! Itachi! Look who's here!"

Two of the younger guys on the set turned and met the four girls' eyes with dark, brooding stares. The shadowy hair hung over their eyes and one had half of a black and red cloak slipping off to reveal a black shirt underneath. Celesse felt even her continence waver and her knees begin to buckle. _These…these two are…_

Rather abruptly, she found the younger of two shaking her hand briefly before moving on to Brit, then Lynn, the Bri. "Hi! Nice to meet you. I'm Sasuke Uchiha and that is my brother, Itachi," he said enthusiastically. "So you're our new Stage Crew, huh? That's great! All of our old Crew left for Ouran High School Host Club. Said something about how they paid more."

"Well, all the better for us!" Brit chimed in. "My name is Brit, and these two are Cel and Lynn. This one that's still standing dumbstruck next to me is my cousin Brielle."

All Bri could do was open and close her mouth like a goldfish in shock.

Itachi stepped forward smiled. "As my brother said before, nice to see you all. It'll be great to have some more help around here--"

"AHH!"

A flash of pink streaked out of one of the dressing rooms. She stopped, nostrils flaring, dark circles around her eyes, streaks of black running down her cheeks. "GAA-_RA_! I'm going to_ kill _you!"

Sasuke stepped forward to stop her. "Hey, Sakura…calm down. What happened?"

Naruto rushed over to see what was wrong. "Sakura, what's going on?"

"He mixed up my make up with his! _Again!_" Sakura dashed away some of her tears. "I'm going right over to Kishimoto and getting a different vanity! Then I need to call my make up artist--"

Cel stepped up. "How about if _I_ just fix it? I'm pretty good with show make up."

Sakura's eyes shimmered. "Would you really?"

"Yeah, why not." Celesse motioned to her friends. "You guys go ahead and meet the rest of the cast. I'll catch up with you guys later!"

Lynn frowned. "You sure?"

She nodded and mouthed, _This is gonna take awhile_.

Lynn grimaced. "Oh. Okay."

Naruto grinned. "Alright then! On with the tour!" he said brightly as he and Sasuke led them to the other side of the studio.

Celesse waved. "Have fun you guys!"


	4. Chapter 4

Lynn waved back to her friend before running to catch up with the rest of the group. This was amazing! They were actually on a set, a real movie set, with real actors and real cameras and real…well, everything! She hardly noticed when Jackie jogged up along side of her and handed her the black shirts she was holding earlier.

"Excuse me! Attention! Mr. Kishimoto requires that you wear these," she instructed as she gave them out. Lynn took hers and unfolded it, revealing a black t-shirt with the words STAGE CREW written on the back in big white letters and the Naruto logo on the front.

Brit giggled. "I guess this makes it official! We're definitely here, because the t-shirt says so." She pulled the shirt on top of her tank top and the other two followed suit.

Jackie frowned. "Where's the other one?"

"Oh, Cel? She went to help Sakura with her make up," Bri explained, her voice muffled as the shirt went over her head.

Lynn took the extra one. "We'll give it to her later."

Sasuke grinned and tugged at Bri's shirt. "You guys look good in these. We had to guess on the sizes a little."

"Yeah! I remember Masashi made us all sit after rehearsal and figure them out before he let us go home," Naruto added. "We were all wondering why he made _us_ do it when any of the other P.A.s could have done it…"

"P.A.s?"

"Personal assistants," Jackie cut in. "Like me. _Most_ of the main characters have them." She shot a look at Naruto.

He held up his hands. "Hey, the kid was giving me an attitude. He was practically _begging_ to get fired."

"No one _begs_ to get fired, Mr. Uzumaki! You just have unreasonable--"

"Hey, hey, what's going on here?" Kakashi appeared behind them as if from thin air, a cup of coffee in hand. "No fighting on set, kiddies. Naruto, Sasuke, Kishimoto wants you. They're preparing for another take at the waterfall. Jackie, I need you to go on an errand for me…" he whipped out a ten dollar bill, "…run down the street and get me a smoothie, will you? Thanks."

Jackie smiled. "Of course. I'll be right back."

He simply waved her off as she took the money and hurried out the door. Carefully, he scanned the three girls. "Someone's missing," he said, quite obviously.

"Err…yeah. Sakura had a make up crisis."

"Is that so? Don't tell me Gaara got their make up mixed around again."

Bri nodded solemnly.

"Ah…well…don't tell them, but…" Kakashi leaned in closer, "…that was me." He grinned and clicked his tongue. "Anyway. On with the tour! You guys haven't seen the dressing rooms yet, have you--?"

"You! Over there!"

A young girl, younger than the three girls currently present, was calling to them from a chair. Her long black hair shone somewhat purple in the bright stage lights, and a woman that looked like her P.A. was carefully removing milky contact lenses and dusting off make up from the sides of the girl's eyes. The girl was motioning in Brit's general direction.

Brit pointed to herself. "Uhh…me?"

"Yes, you! Of course! Who else could it be? You're a Crew member, right? Go get me some coffee, then see what you can do about all these wires! I always trip and fall on them. A good Stage Crew always keeps the set _clean_ and _orderly_!"

"Umm…yes, ma'am! I'll get right to work!" Brit looked frantically at Kakashi and asked in a hushed tone, "Where the coffee?"

The man pointed to a giant bronze contraption with pipes and gauges. "By the way, Hinata likes her coffee with lots of milk and two packets of sugar."

Silence in the midst of the chaos around them.

Finally, Lynn spoke up. "_That's_…Hinata…?"

"Yep. Her family's rich and she's kind of spoiled…her twin Neji is a little better, though."

"_Kind of_ spoiled?"

"Compared to other actresses I've met, Hinata and her brother are _nothing_." Kakashi shrugged. "We should get moving."

* * *

"Alright Sakura, calm down and sit in this chair," Celesse said, trying to soothe the still sniffling girl. She led her to a vanity with her name on the top in hot pink letters and set her down in the comfortable seat. "This'll only take a few minutes." 

_Yeah right_.

It would have only taken a few minutes if Sakura hadn't cried so much over it. But now the good eye shadow her make up artist had done was gone, and the right tint of blush was ruined. Not to mention the hard-to-remove black tear tracks running down her face… Celesse figured it probably wouldn't be a good idea for Sakura to herself right now. She discreetly spun the chair away from the mirror and grabbed a few tissues from the counter.

"Err…so…how show biz going for you?" Cel asked, slipping into light conversation as she tried her best to clean up the disaster zone. "Everything working out?"

"Yeah, I guess…"

Celesse looked up and grabbed a compact with light minty-green eye shadow. " 'I guess' ?"

Sakura shrugged, knocking her temporary make up artist's hand off balance as she tried to apply the eye shadow and Cel had to bite her tongue inside of muttering something extremely profane.

"I took the job because I thought…I could spend more time with Sasuke." She bit her lip. "We're classmates, you see? Practically best friends since kindergarten. When he got the part as Sasuke, he recommended I dye my hair pink and try out for one of the parts they were having trouble casting. But he's almost always surrounded by fangirls, or the other actors, or hanging out with his brother that I'm starting to think that we're not even friends anymore."

Cel smiled faintly. "And let me guess…you want him to go above and beyond?" She checked the girl's eyes, deemed them fine, and proceeded to start with the lipstick.

Sakura returned the bittersweet grin. "Yeah, something like that."

_Well, better not tell Bri about that._

Itachi walked in, his black and red Akatsuki cloak slung over one shoulder. "Hey, is everything going on alright here?"

Sakura nodded happily. Celesse silently cursed again but managed to stop her hand before the lipstick went all over the actress's face.

"That's good," he said, ruffling Sakura's hair. "But you'd better hurry up, Haruno. Sasuke and Naruto just finished the last waterfall fight scene…your part will be coming up soon. And Kishimoto says we'll be skipping around and trying out the fight scene with Kakashi's team versus me after the two year skip, too, before we close for the night."

"But it's already so late--" She began to rub her eyes but Celesse swatted her hand. Sakura grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. But honestly, it must be almost nine at night. If he wants to call that early take tomorrow, Masashi had best let us out by ten at least…"

Itachi laughed. "We can always hope, I guess. I'm going to go back out; do you need me to get you anything, Haruno?"

"No thanks, I'm fine. Anything I might need I'll ask Cel to get. My P.A. took the day off." She smiled. "And please, I've known you since Sasuke and I were in elementary school. Call me Sakura."

"Alright then. See you out there…Sakura." Itachi grinned again as he shut the door behind him.

"Just in time! I'm all finished!" Celesse said cheerily, handing Sakura a hand mirror so the actress could see herself.

She'd barely changed anything at all, simply provided a few strategic accents. Just a light dusting of some softly glittering powder and a faintly pink lip gloss, so that every shift in her expression was clearly visible. Of course there was the minty eye shadow, barely noticeable, but Sakura knew that the make up wouldn't be complete without it. She handed back the mirror to Celesse.

"Thank you so much! It looks great, much better than before, and much _much_ better than I expected," she commented. "Alright, I gotta get out there. Thanks again! But you'll be there to see the take, I hope…?"

"Of course!"

Sakura smiled brightly. "That's good. It's not something you'd want to miss!"


	5. Chapter 5

"Umm…umm…here's your coffee, Hinata!"

Brit offered the mug of steaming warm coffee to the young actress, her head half-bowed. Hinata eyed the girl and took the coffee, sipped a little. She nodded. "Two sugars, lots of milk. Someone told you, didn't they?"

Brit's eyes flicked to where Kakashi was standing, his finger cutting across his neck, silently screaming, _Don't tell her!_

She shrugged. "No. That's how I drink my coffee."

"I see," Hinata murmured, taking another sip.

"Brit! C'mon!"

Brit turned around to see her friends madly waving her over towards the set where Naruto and Sasuke were setting up and getting ready to "fight". She looked at Hinata, who dismissed her.

"Come find me when rehearsal's over, okay?" the actress said.

"Alright." Brit waved as she left and approached the set. "Okay, people. What's going on here?"

A Japanese man with short black hair stood next to her, eyes still bright and awake despite the hour. He watched as the two teenage actors chatted away on set and was about to say something until he noticed Brit draw near. Celesse also came running out of the make up rooms, followed by Sakura; Brit noticed a definite change in both the girl's complexion and mood and wondered for a brief second what had happened while they were gone. But it was only for a moment, because at that moment the Japanese man chose to speak.

"Hi! I'm Masashi Kishimoto, the creator and the director of the show. You must be my new Stage Crew!" He gave them a small half-smile. "As you can see, despite our popularity we're severely under-staffed…so that's where you come in! I know you start tomorrow, but I'd really like to see work so I can understand you better and assign you the proper jobs the next morning."

Celesse shrugged. "We don't mind."

"That's good--Shizune!"

A woman with short black hair ran towards him with a clipboard clutched in her arms. "Yes, sir?"

Kishimoto motioned to the four girls behind him. "Shizune, meet your new Stage Crew."

"My…my new Stage Crew? But weren't they supposed to come tomorrow? I'm pretty sure I got the schedule straight--" She frantically began to flip through the pages of her clipboard. "The calendar says--I was pretty sure they were coming early tomorrow morning--"

"Relax, Shizune," the director chuckled. "They _were_ supposed to come July first. But they came a day early. Which is a good thing, so you can have a night to sleep on which jobs are right for them. You can test them today, right now, during this take." He patted her shoulder. "I need to pep talk Sasuke and Naruto first, anyway. Explain to them the jobs they will have until I get back."

"Wait," Bri interrupted. "Aren't you Tsunade's assistant in the show?"

Kishimoto nodded. "Yes, in fact she is. But she was originally our Stage Crew manager. Then I just _had_ to cast her for the part…she was perfect, and she came here on a daily basis anyway." He shrugged. "Shizune, you have ten minutes."

As soon as he walked away, the nervous young woman turned back to the four novices. "Alright…we'll take it slow. Since we're limited to only four people, I'll have to knock down some of the less important jobs. B-but we should still have a lot so you all have to take more than one." She held a diagram out in front of them.

"The discipline of stagecraft can be divided into a few sub-disciplines: costume construction and maintenance, lighting, theatrical property (or props, for short), scenery, make up, and sound. Even though we have many actors we only have four of you, so you have to be quick and efficient and on your toes at all times. Now that I've said that, would you like to each tell me what you think you'd be good at? To make my job easier?" Shizune raised her brow and pointed at Lynn. "Let's start with you, first."

Lynn studied the list on the clipboard. "Umm…I think I would be good at lighting and costumes."

"And why would that be?"

"Well, I _did_ take fashion design so I know different clothing styles, as well as how to sew. And I'm an amateur photographer, so I understand a thing or two about lighting."

Shizune nodded. "Okay, fair enough. You?"

"Well," Celesse began, "I guess I could try make up and sound. Maybe even scenery. I'm an okay artist and I really do like working with music. And I did alright with Sakura's make up, too."

Bri jumped in next. "I think I can work with sound too, and maybe props. That sounds like fun."

"I'll try scenery and props," Brit added. "And lighting, too! If I get into lighting, do I work with the huge spotlights?"

The manager laughed. "We hardly use those. But when and if we do, I'll be sure you're first in line. Okay?"

Brit punched the air. "Score!"

Shizune smiled. "Okay, then…since this is the last scene for the night, we'll only need a few things…" She began scribbling notes down on her clipboard. "…Brit, you'll be in charge of props. Kunai, shuriken, the works. Cel, I'll need you on make up--Naruto needs to get absolutely soaking wet for this take; the buckets of water are over there. Make sure not to spill too much. And use Gaara's heavy eyeliner for Sasuke. Brielle, you'll be on sound. Before the scene starts, cue the CD with 'Waterfall Scene, N & S-1' on it and then pick up the sound pole quickly, because the take will start when Celesse cuts the clapper about ten seconds later. Hold it just out of camera sight. Don't worry--it's ultra-sensitive, so it doesn't have to be _too_ close. And Lynn, you'll be the gaffer."

"The _what_?"

"The gaffer," Shizune repeated, as if it were the most normal word in the world. "The gaffer is the head of the lighting department…you'll be in charge of setting the right mood with the proper lighting. The gel sheets are next to the ladder, which goes up to the ceiling lights. You'll have to gaff the lights before the take to look like sunlight breaking through the clouds. And before that, make it look like a thunderstorm. Oh, and…make sure you stay off the set…the sprinklers will be on."

Celesse knew exactly what part they were going to be filming…it was the very end of the epic battle between Naruto and Sasuke, wherein it was raining and Naruto was lying on the ground, unconscious. She sighed and hurried off to pull the two actors aside. There was a lot of work to do.

* * *

"Stay still!" she scolded Sasuke for the fourth time as she applied shadowy black liner around his eyes to give him a somewhat tired look while a fan blew cold wind to turn his skin even paler than usual.

The actor just fidgeted some more. "Aren't you done yet?"

"Oh shut up; I keep screwing up because you keep moving!" Cel hissed at him. She finally drew back after adding another layer of eyeliner. "There. All done--Naruto, your turn!"

The blonde approached her and sat down willingly, twitching as he tried to keep his cool, even though he wasn't really used to this. It was just as well. Celesse had a lot more work to do on him than Sasuke. The scratch marks on the side of his face were easy enough, but she had to give him bruise marks that stood up to the pouring "rain" on set.

Shizune peeked into the room. "How's everything going here? Good?" She glanced at Sasuke and the fan he stood in front of. "Ah, I see. That, along with the rain, should make you white enough. But hurry up, Celesse. The take's about to start. Lynn's just putting the finishing touches on the lights and we should be good to go."

"Yes, ma'am!" She took a step back. "Alright! There you go. Only one more thing to do."

Naruto looked puzzled as he stood up in the huge basin she had placed under his feet. "What's that?"

"This."

Celesse hefted a huge bucket of water and dumped it over the actor's head, trying to keep the excess in the tub below. What she saw pleased her--he was soaking wet, but the make up had stayed perfect. "_Magnifique_," she joked in French. "Now, shoo-shoo. Let's get this done. Everyone wants to go home already."


	6. Chapter 6

Lynn grit her teeth as she reached for the last light, more than two feet away from her, the ladder wobbly beneath her. The yellow and grey gel sheets she held in her hand trembled dangerously.

_C'mon…_ she thought. _A few…more…centimeters…_

"Lynn! Hey! You done yet?"

The girl jerked back in surprise, gripping the gel sheets tightly in one hand and clutching the ladder even more so, trying to hold herself steady. After one moment of heart-pumping silence, Lynn threw the speaker a nasty look.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Celesse apologized, grinning sheepishly. "Didn't mean to scare you, honest!"

"Sure you didn't," Lynn muttered under her breath, trying to relax before attempting to reach the lights again.

Celesse just bit her lip and scurried off back to the set. As soon as Lynn was done with whatever the hell she was doing, the take would start. The girl went over shyly to where Kakashi stood in his full-out ninja costume, already dripping from head-to-toe from the same technique Cel had done to Naruto. He looked none too pleased. Celesse grinned.

"You look like a wet puppy," she joked.

"Shut up."

"Hey! I meant that in a nice way. You look cute."

Kakashi turned to stare at her for a moment and was about to say something when Brit suddenly came up to him holding a cage. She opened it, held it out to him. The actor reached in and pulled out a small, brown pug with sad eyes.

"Pakkun," was all she said with a smile before hurrying off to set the cage off to the side.

He blinked a few times as Celesse took the dog from his hands and nuzzled him. "He's so cute!" She beamed at the small pug. "Hi, puppy! Aren't you the lucky one? You get to play Kakashi's talking nin-dog; isn't that awesome?" She nuzzled him fondly again.

Kakashi eyed her curiously. "It's a _dog_, Cel."

"I know! But isn't he adorable?"

"Alright, alright, enough with the dog," Kishimoto interrupted, pulling the dog from Celesse's hands and handing in back to Kakashi. "Places, people! Get ready for the take! Ms. Andersen, here's the clapper. Brielle? Start the music. It's the last scene of the night! Let's get it right, people!"

Just as Lynn reached the last step of the ladder, a wall of sound detonated in her ears and made her teeth chatter. She slapped her hands to the sides of her head in defense but the song still blasted its annoying tune:

_--I'M REALLY SPECIAL 'CUZ THERE'S ONLY ONE OF ME--_

Lynn winced. _Oh, you have got to be kidding._

_--LOOK AT MY SMILE, I'M SO DAMN HAPPY, OTHER PEOPLE ARE JEALOUS OF ME--_

Back at the set, Bri reached over for the stop button, her fingers fumbling over the controls. "Crap…crap…nope, not it…ahh!" The song suddenly shut off, and silence filled the set. Brielle sat there, on the floor, eyes still tightly closed. After awhile she thought it safe to open them.

A steadily-clearing picture of Kishimoto came into view.

"Ahem," he said, clearing his throat. Anger that raidated off his body like heatwaves. The director held out his hand. "Give me the CD."

Bri slowly popped open the case and held it out to him. Kishimoto looked at the label.

_Waterfall Scene. N & S - 1_

He stared at it for what seemed like ages to all those whose eyes watched in growing horror.

"Is this some kind of a joke?" he asked. His voice was soft, but it crackled like lightning. "Is this some kind of sick joke? Because if it is, I'd like to know now." Kishimoto slowly turned towards Brielle, who sat on the floor with a blank look on her face. "Did you do this?"

"No, Kishimoto sir," she murmured. "It's the only CD I could find with that name--"

"Oh really? Is that so?" The Japanese man carefully turned so he could speak to everyone on set. "Listen, people! We only have two months to film a whole season of this show. One show per week from the beginning of September all the way until June of next year. Do you understand that? That's almost forty episodes! _Can you understand that?_" He slapped the CD on the recording desk. "We don't have _time_ for…for…for petty _tricks_ like this! We are on a time limit, people! You aren't getting paid to fool around here! You are paid to WORK. Do I make myself clear?"

A soft echo of, "Yes sir."

"Good. Now everyone pack up the set and go home. I want you all here by 5:30 in the morning tomorrow."

The limo that drove Kakashi and the girls back to The Peninsula Beverly Hills was already there waiting when they finally left the studio. Sasuke, Sakura, and another teenager who's hair stood up in a stiff ponytail asked if they could come along for the ride, too. Kakashi beckoned them in without hesitation.

The ride back was quiet compared to that afternoon. Little conversation passed between the occupants of the car because of lack of topic, exhaustion, or both. In fact, the only voices Celesse could hear from between Brit and Kakashi was that of her friend Lynn across from her and the newcomer, who introduced himself as Shikamaru and actually lived across the hall from where the four girls were staying.

This launched the once silent group as to where everyone was staying: Cel, Bri, Brit, and Lynn were on the ninth floor; Shikamaru was across from them; Sasuke lived with his brother three floors above on the twelfth; Sakura had found a nice suite on the tenth floor; Kakashi couldn't stand living in, what he called, "such a cramped environment" and had rented out the penthouse that took up the whole top floor.

"What?" the actor whined when everyone glared at him.

When the group had reached the hotel they found Itachi already there in the lobby, evidently waiting for them. He gave an exhausted smile and greeted them before all nine of them piled into the glass-walled elevator.

From then until she collapsed on her bed, Celesse's memory was a blur.

_--Kakashi asked Itachi something--drinking, perhaps--sangria--upstairs--_

_--the lights of Los Angels--fluttering before her eyes--glowing balls of multi-colored fire--spinning--_

_--Sasuke chatting softly with Sakura--_

_--the elevator dinging--Lynn pulling her out--waving back to Kakashi as the doors closed--was that a wink?--_

_--swaying towards their hotel room--saying a groggy goodnight to Shikamaru--_

_--the door slamming shut behind her--finding her bed--pushing the messenger bag off it--falling face flat into the silk sheets--_

"Oh. My. GOD," she heard herself groan, and tossed herself onto her back. "I have the worse headache in the _world_…"

A plastic bottle smacked her in the face.

"Thanks, Lynn."

"Don't mention it."

Cel looked up, saw the rest of her friends already changed into their nightclothes, sitting in on the couch in front of the television. She immediately ripped open her suitcase to find her own pajamas.

When she finally padded out of the bathroom, brushing her hair after a long shower, Brit saw her and waved her over. Celesse took a seat on the floor next to Brielle. "So…how long was I out?"

Brit thought for a moment and glanced at the clock. "For a good hour or so, I think."

"Wow. Jeez…" she popped two Aleve in her mouth and swallowed. "Remind me never to do that again." She turned around to look at her friends. "Well, we know not to get Mr. Kishimoto angry now."

Lynn peered up from her book. "You can say that again."

"I never really imagined him so…strict, really."

"Yeah, me neither."

After about half an hour of silence besides the blare of the television, Celesse stood and turned it off. "You guys, we really should get to bed. If Kishimoto wants us at the studio by 5:30, we have an early wake up call tomorrow and it's already almost midnight."

A murmur of discontent went around the room before the four girls finally left for bed. As Celesse curled up beneath her sheets and quilt (Brielle had turned the thermostat ridiculously low), a single thought mind her both happy and kind of…not.

_We survived the first day._


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven ::**

"Up! GET UP!"

Celesse moaned and tossed over onto her front, slamming the down pillow over her head to block out Jackie's shrill voice outside the hotel room. She had a strange, sickly feeling that she wasn't the only one ignoring it. But the assistant was used to this behavior (anyone who was as tied to Kakashi as she was had to be) and wasn't about to give up so soon. The blonde eyed her Guess watch, the numberless rectangular face glaring up at her, the second hand ticking away the minutes they all had to get their butts to the studio. She had already gotten Kakashi himself up and out of his room…and deeply regretted offering to wake the four girls up herself. If one of the actors had done it they would be dashing out to the elevators in no time.

"Come on! Lateness is not an option this morning!" she called out, fist still banging on the door. Right now, Jackie was past caring if she woke the whole hotel up. She had seen Kishimoto truly angry--last night was absolutely nothing--and despite her better judgement, would rather the younger girls not experience that.

Cel pulled her arm out from under the warm sheets and waved to her friends (knowing full well that none of them were really paying attention). "Can someone go answer the door so Jackie doesn't have a seizure or something?" Though she herself was normally a morning person, the warm bed was so suffocatingly cozy and cotton-ball soft that she wasn't about to pass it up.

She heard Lynn groan, but saw Brit stand up in the corner of her half-open eyes and shuffle over to open the door. Murmurs and mumbles. "We're getting up, Jackie. --No, I promise. We'll be down in fifteen minutes. Yeah. Bye." A door slam, some more shuffling. A slipper thwapped her head. Hard. "Get up. Everyone's downstairs already."

Celesse rolled out of bed as Brit went to wake up Brielle, then Lynn. Lynn wrenched the slipper out of her hand and chucked it right back at her. "Now, now, Lynn. Be nice. They don't know how you are in the morning."

"Whatever."

"Don't make me drag you out of bed. 'Cuz you know I will."

"Alright, alright. Break it up, people. We've gotta be downstairs in fifteen minutes!" Brit tapped her foot impatiently. "Let's get moving!"

It took what seemed like quite some time to get everyone out of the room and into the lobby downstairs, but true to Brit's word they were there in more-or-less fifteen minutes. Celesse took a bleary look at the clock above the elevators. 4:46.

Surprisingly, Kakashi was already up and munching on a bagel while lounging in a comfortable arm chair. Sasuke leaned on the table next to him, reading through a tabloid silently, a serenely happy look on his face. Kakashi motioned for them to join him. "Jackie's getting donuts and bagels," he explained simply.

Lynn perked up, unexpectedly breaking out of her dreamy stupor. "And coffee?"

"Not Starbucks, I hope," Brit added with something just short of certain distaste on the tip of her tongue.

"Nope. Dunkin' Donu--"

All of a sudden, the table Sasuke was leaning on began to tremble--his hand quivered violently with surpressed shock and confusion. And…anger…?

"Sasuke…what's up?" Brielle asked, stunned at his abrupt change of mood.

The actor slowly closed the magazine and tossed it on the table. "Nothing," he muttered unconvincingly. "Nothing that should concern you at all. Stupid tabloids."

The elevator dinged. It's golden doors slid away to allow two more fellow actors out; Sakura's pink hair was tied back in a ponytail, its original blonde color threatening to show itself at the roots, and her sparkling emerald eyes were happily laughing at some joke or the other that Itachi hadn't surpressed and he now evidently looked extremely smug with himself. For a brief moment Brielle thought she saw a flash of the on-screen Sasuke pierce through.

But it must have been her imagination.

Because no one had the recovery time of a nanosecond…right? Right. It was silly. Just a silly thought.

There wasn't time to really discuss the miniature scene that Bri thought went on. There was too much to do, to much to set up, just too much to handle all at once. She wasn't used to this. Multi-tasking wasn't hard for her, really, it was just that this was a different type of multi-tasking. One where actual work was involved.

From Cel's unusual silence, to Brit's disappearance of energy, to Lynn being even more withdrawn than normal, it was obvious that she wasn't the only one who thought so.

So it really was just icing on the cake when Sasuke pulled her off to the side to talk to her. Any normal, sane girl would faint from the opportunity (or at least sigh longingly), but Bri's mind was on other things. She didn't want to screw up like yesterday, even though it technically wasn't her fault. But as the words left her lips, she knew it was the wrong thing to say at a very wrong time. "Sasuke, can this wait? I'm sorry, but I'm kind of busy."

Silence.

Tension.

Something wasn't right.

Sasuke whipped out the tabloid he'd been reading in the lobby while they waited, flipping frantically to the page with the cover articles. Though his movements were crazed his face remained frighteningly passive, even when he practically slapped a certain headline in her hands. A bold photo of two familiar faces coming out of the studio last night greeted her.

**ROMANCE ON SET?!?**

**Naruto****'s Uchiha Itachi and Haruno Sakura get together?**

Brielle looked up to where the actor jabbed his finger by the cappuchino machine. Sakura was there with Itachi, chattering away again. It took a few seconds and more than a couple of blinks for the girl to put two and two together, but when she did…she was still just as confused as ever. Being confused immediately jumped to teasing.

"Aww, is someone _jealous_?"

The teen looked slightly infuriated at the thought. "_Of course not!_"

"I think you are."

"And if I'm _not_?"

"That's not even an option, because you--"

"_AUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!"_

An ear-piercing scream hit the two of them with the force of cymbals clashing right next to them, followed by plastic cups filled with what looked like smoothies splattering their contents all over the set. Sakura was the first to fall victim to the spill when she ran to help--her foot crashed into the gaffing ladder and Lynn tumbled head over heels onto both of them--Shikamaru had sleepily walked in, headed to check in with Kishimoto, unknowingly tripping over the growing heap of people--Ino, who had been brushing her long brunette hair with a nonchalante expression in her eyes when the brush slipped out of her hands and she landed face first in the stuff--Brit slipped and so did the hot coffee she was carrying--

The horror grew the longer Sasuke and Bri watched, finally leaving only the two of them and Kakashi left standing. Kakashi actually had tipped his shades down and was studying the catastrophe with a smirk written all over his face. He searched the wreckage for the source of it all, and when he found her the smirk only grew bigger.

Celesse, all the way at the bottom and covered head-to-toe in strawberry smoothie, saw his wry grin and felt a sob bubble out from her chest.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

Kakashi stared cooly through his dark shades at the open door in front of him. He jiggled with the door knob that was supposed to be locked, peeked into the studio that was supposed to be empty. It was dark inside alright; but something wasn't making sense. Why wasn't the studio locked up properly? The actor still laughed when he remembered the look on Kishimoto's face when he had assigned the four interns to clean up the huge mess and repair anything that had been damaged in the most dramatic pile up of the century (actually, he had only ordered Celesse to but the girl had somehow convinced her three friends to stay and help, too). Strangely enough, the director hadn't been as amused by the whole incident as Kakashi had and the man couldn't quite find out why.

Anyway, the situation was still odd. Even the new girls knew that the studio had to be locked up for the night and if they had left without doing so there could be more trouble in store for them. Kakashi frowned at the thought. This just wasn't a good week, now was it? Suddenly, he was a little more than grateful to Jackie and her early wake up call. If he could make it seem like he just checked in early then maybe no one would notice…

"Hello?" he called, his voice carrying through the echoing set. "Is anyone here?"

Kakashi paused when he thought he heard whispers and the shuffling of sneakers from behind one of the scenes. He walked carefully and quietly through the black.

"Cel? Brielle? Lynn? Brit? Are you guys still here--?"

Quite a few hands smothered his mouth and dragged him to the rear of the set and sat him down. Kakashi blinked, confused, when he saw Celesse with her finger to her lips. Lynn sat close to the edge of the set, craning her head to glance around the corner. "Brit's got every ready," she whispered.

Celesse smiled. "Good."

The actor could see Brit's slight figure slide gracefully back with the rest of the group. He finally brought up the courage--and the sanity--to ask, "What's going on here? Where's Bri? It's so quiet…"

It was then that Kakashi could see small differences in Cel's appearance: Her eyes were wide with excitement, shadowy rings marking how long it had been since she had slept; he even noticed the slight tremble in her fingers, probably from exhaustion and attempting to pump enough caffiene in her system to last the whole night. The Cheshire Cat-like grin across her face only added to the wild air about her when she turned to stare straight in to his eyes.

"…she came from the blackness."

All of a sudden a whooping yell rebounded along the walls of the studio, sending shivers down Kakashi's spine. Lynn ran to switch on the spotlights as the other three hid their eyes, expecting the blinding light. The man squinted through the brightness and saw Brielle standing in the middle of the room covered from head to toe in styrofoam and tin foil, waving around a giant Fuma shuriken prop and a kunai.

"A new age has come--an age of _freedom_!" Bri's voice rang painfully in his ears. "And all will know that, on this day, one lone Naruto fan gave her last breath to defend it! HEAR ME! This is where I hold you! This is where I fight! This is where you DIE!"

Lynn carefully padded out, her hands held up. "Bri, calm down. You need sleep, okay? This is madness--"

"Madness? This…is…_SPARTA_!"

"--Uh, Bri? No it's not--"

"What's going on here?" came a soft voice from the entrance to the studio. Kishimoto swung his bag around to his other shoulder, anooyance written all across his face. "Miss Benner? What the _hell_ are you doing? We need to get set up…can you please put those away?"

"No retreat, no surrender! That is Spartan law," she declared, a fierce grin on her face. "And by Spartan law, I will stand and fight…and _die_."

Kishimoto gave her a tired glance. "As your boss, I'm going to ask you one more time. Put. Those. AWAY."

"The world will know that a free woman stood against a tyrant…"

Her eyes narrowed dangerously. Each of her footsteps resounded when they touched the ground.

"…that one stood against many…"

She actually looked kinda scary with the metallic props in her hands.

"…and before this battle is over, that even a god-king like you can bleed."

Just as the Japanese man was about to give a very sharp retort, Jackie pranced in; her arms were laden with bags of bagels and cream cheese, boxes of donuts, a tray of coffee. "Good morning, everyone!" she greeted cheerfully. The personal assistant gave no notice that she had realized any of this drama was going oninstead, the young woman turned to set her packages on the table a few feet away. "Alright! Dig in!"

"Well, on second thought--" Bri inched towards the table. "I'd best enjoy my breakfast, for tonight--" she looked nervously at Kishimoto, "I dine in hell." With that, the girl set off at a sprint towards the food, weapons still in hand and styrofoam making an odd _ssh_ing noise as she ran.

It went by so fast that no one caught exactly what happened next, but through logical reasoning one could reconstruct the following scene:

As soon as Bri's foot touched the dead center of the trap Brit had spread out on the floor, Lynn, Cel, and Kakashi hauled the huge cargo net via rope and pulley to 'catch' the sleep-deprived teen before she could do some real damage and massacre the food.

The girl swung, suspended in the air, as Kakashi tied a secure knot to hold the net there. Celesse stepped out until she was almost beneath her friend and looked up with patronizing eyes. "Bri! Hand over the shuriken and kunai!"

"Oh yeah, Cel? COME AND GET THEM!" she crowed. "I will never surrender! For love! For liberty! For SPARTA!"

There was a collective sigh. This was going to be one long day.

"Hey, Cel. Get up. It's time to get back to the hotel."

She felt her eyes flutter open and instinctively brushed her dark hair away from her face. "Ugh…how long have I been out?"

"Three hours. You're so lazy," Bri muttered next to her.

"Yeah, and you went psycho this morning." Celesse rubbed her eyes. "Kishimoto's not mad at me?"

Brielle smiled, reminscing. "Ah yes…that was so much fun. The look on Kishimoto's face…! And don't worry--he's not mad at you. C'mon. Let's go home. We've got another early start tomorrow…"

"Actually, you don't." Kakashi sidled up beside her. "Tomorrow's July 3rd. A Saturday, the beginning of Independence Day weekend." He shrugged. "There's an LA Raiders game tomorrow night, you know…I can get extra tickets if you guys want to come."

Brit popped out from behind the cappuccino machine. "Really? Who's coming?"

The man scratched his head and adjusted his sunglasses. "Aeh…Sasuke, Naruto, Kurenai, Asuma, and I got tickets for Kiba and Tenten. As I said before, it's easy enough to pull strings and get a few extra tickets."

"That's so cool!"

"You want to go to a _football game_? Where's the fun in that?"

Sakura put on a mock pout and crossed her arms. "Hey. I heard Shika's girlfriend Temari and her brothers are holding a concert that night, too. They'll be hopping around on a minitour and their first stop is Los Angeles. Ino's coming, Itachi…Dei…"

"That sounds pretty awesome," Lynn piped up. "Count me in."

Celesse winced. "Man, guys…both of those things really sound fun…" She looked from one side of her to the other, her mind on hyperdrive. Football game; concert. Kakashi; her best friend.

Ah…choices, choices.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine ::**

"Don't lose your tickets, people!"

Celesse could barely make out Kakashi's muffled warning above the rest of the conversations going on inside the usually roomy limousine despite the fact that he was right next to her. Well, that's when you pack about eight, nine, maybe ten people in a car no matter how big it's supposed to be. She found herself wedged in between Kurenai and Kakashi (the former flirting shamelessly the latter), and wondering _why_ she was going to see a major league sport that she didn't even understand in a stadium filled to the brim with people who would be staring at her with bugged-out eyes because she was surrounded by famous actors and talking to Hatake Kakashi and possibly get kidnapped and ransomed off for that very reason. The answer was simple:

_Kakashi._

He had somehow sweet-talked her out of the rock concert that was sure to be the hub of Las Vegas night life and meeting her idol, the pop-rock star Temari. Away from her best friend, from the dancing, from the music blasting in her ears until they gave out.

Somehow, he had convinced her to come to a stupid football game with him--I mean, _them_.

Yeah. 'Them'. That sounded better.

_Damn you, you white-haired, silver-tongued, extremely hot, and famous jerk--_

"So, Cel; you excited?"

She looked up, a tired look in her eyes. "Huh?--Oh, yeah. It sounds like fun."

Kakashi frowned. "You don't look like it."

"Just…tired, I guess. It's almost seven and Kishimoto made us disassemble all the traps we made for Bri yesterday. I didn't know our traps would be so stable…"

"Well, you don't notice a lot of things if you stay up all night."

Celesse nodded and grinned slyly. "Touché, my friend."

The buzz in the limo had toned down slightly and was now just over a faint hum. Though air conditioning blasted out of the vents, fighting away the disgusting summer heat, it was clearly not doing a very good job as the sticky air was aided by the fact that the car was so tightly packed. Not that it would be much different from the mosh pit at wherever the Sand Siblings were probably playing at (complete with the same exact odds of losing her cell phone in a crowd), but she'd at least be having fun--

_There I go again! Always ruining a situation any other person would want to be in. _The girl scolded herself ferociously. _I should be enjoying myself…_

"Wow…"

Lynn found that she couldn't breathe; there was just too much things to awe at all at once. The giant stage and the dance area around it were completely empty, but there seemed to an elated feeling of anticipation fluttering around in the air. Something big was going to happen; something behind the huge black spotlights, the dark stage, the hollowness of the place.

She looked to Shikamaru, who was already weaving his way through the other actors that tagged along and making his way to the stairs that led up to and behind the stage. Curious, Lynn followed him: up the stairs, through a door, around two corners, tripping over four sets of wires, a few plugs, a broken drum set, and a cat.

Where the cat came from, we'll never know.

Lynn edged out of the black-hued cat's way, and headed towards where voices were drifting out of a room with a huge gold star on it. Three, actually. The faintly glimmering paint had faded slightly into the deep oaken-brown of the door, but the rest of the surroundings looked rather new…

"How many people did you _bring_?"

And exasperated voice, possible in a high alto range, most definitely the voice of a woman or (at the very least) a fairly-old teenager.

"…Just a few friends. Deidara is planning on paying for all the tickets except for the one you gave me, so don't worry about it so much."

Lynn knew that voice well; its tired tone was one she automatically associated with Shikamaru.

"Well, I suppose that's okay then…"

"And plus, once word spreads that there'll be a few stars at the concert, everyone'll be vying for more tickets, eh Tema?" Lynn's eyebrows furrowed as she listened next to the door. Was his voice always that exhausted? "So what are you complaining about?"

"Aeh…I don't know, Shikamaru. I'm sorry--I just got a little carried away, especially after Gaara and Kankuro going off the wall with giving out tickets every which way. I had to tell our manager to stop supplying them with tickets or we'd be sold out without selling a single one!"

Lynn could almost imagine the young man's shrug. In fact, if she turned her head a certain way, she could see the two of them in a wall-to-floor mirror from a crack through the slightly-open door. "Yeah. That'd be depressing."

The girl saw a young woman with what looked like (attempted) fashionably-messy blonde hair give Shikamaru a hug. "You haven't been sleeping again…how much work do they give you in med-school, anyway?"

He laughed. "Enough to keep my bed made for _days_."

"That bad, huh?" Temari punched him in the shoulder. "Don't worry; chin up! The first summer semester is letting out soon anyway, right? After that it's smooth cruisin--"

"--until end of August," Shikamaru grumbled under his breath. Lynn resisted the urge to laugh from the sheer exhaustion of his tone. He was never this talkative on set! The girl would have liked to listen longer but she recognized the sound of packing a small bag and knew they'd be heading out soon. And when they did, she knew it would be bad if she were still there. Quietly, she tiptoed down the hallway and back to the filling seats outside.

"Oh my God, is this really it?" Brit said animatedly. "We're here! We're here! We're really here!"

The chauffer let them out in a fairly discreet place, surrounded by a minimal amount of people (for which most of the passengers were relieved). Jackie stepped out first, looking like a normal teenager for once in her mini skirt and Aeropostale tank top. Celesse looked at her own clothes and frowned, immediately feeling threatened.

_Aww, get over it Cel._

She noticed as the headed for their seats that the stadium was already packed with people, and Celesse saw Kakashi pull the edge of his cap protectively over his face. He flipped open his sunglasses with a flick of his wrist and his eyes disappeared behind the tinted lenses. The actor had dressed in an outfit similar to the one he wore when he picked them up from the plane their first day: black designer t-shirt, relatively loose khakis. It was even hard to see his silvery hair from beneath the baseball hat.

"So…do I look fairly normal?"

He might've been trying to hide most of his stand-out appearance, but the same devious grin was still there.

Celesse looked at him with a grave expression. "As normal as a zombie in a graveyard."

A frown. "That bad, huh?"

"Well first of all," she pointed out, "you're a twenty-something year old man wearing something that most high schoolers would wear every day. Despite the fact that the sun's already down you're still wearing shades. This is a football game, and yet you have a baseball cap. Oh, and scratch my first comment--most high schoolers can't _afford_ that outfit, so you look like either a very spoiled college student or a famous actor in disguise."

Kakashi tipped down his shades so that the teen could see his narrowed eyes. "Thanks, Cel. Very optimistic."

"I try to be." Celesse shrugged. "I imagine that Sasuke and Naruto have the same problem…?"

"Not exactly. Their hair isn't bright silver."

She poked him. "What's your real hair color, anyway?"

"Platinum blonde, I think--"

A voice called out over the ruckus. "--Hey! Let go of me--help! Someone help!"

Kakashi gripped Celesse's arm tightly. "I think that's Tenten…go, keep up with the group. Don't get lost."

"Wait--what--?" But the actor had already disappeared into the crowd, leaving her with the rest of her friends.

Or so she thought.

Celesse looked to her left; nothing. Right; nada. Her mind went into overdrive and her body dove into all-out panic at the absence of familiar faces around her. Where had everyone gone? Hadn't they just been there a second ago? How could they have disappeared so fast? Though she didn't want to accept it, when the realization hit her it hit her hard.

She. Was. Lost.


End file.
